The Revolt of Mamie Stover
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The Revolt of Mamie Stover is a 1951 novel by William Bradford Huie about a Mississippi prostitute, later a war profiteer in Honolulu. A movie version directed by Raoul Walsh was filmed in 1956 with Jane Russell in the title role.
The fact that Hollywood adapted the book was ironic, given that the first two chapters represent a very sharp indictment of film industry culture. The book's protagonist is described as having been cruelly abused - physically and sexually - by studio directors during her futile efforts to establish an acting career, and as having been driven into prostitution by a bullying film star who cynically exploited and discarded her. The book presents Hollywood as "a jungle where everybody is either predator or prey". This aspect was, however, toned down in the film version.
Over a decade later, Huie wrote a sequel, Hotel Mamie Stover (1963).
The film The Revolt of Mamie Stover served as the basis for a critique of Claude Levi-Strauss' kinship system and its evaluation of the exchange of women in Elizabeth Cowie's Woman as Sign.
